


Ten Storey Love Song (I Built This Thing For You)

by gingertintedglasses



Series: Running Up That Hill [3]
Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: AU, M/M, SO FLUFFY, War Veteran Steve, civilian bucky, mention of injury, mention of physical therapy, your teeth may rot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-21
Updated: 2017-11-21
Packaged: 2019-02-04 23:49:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12782295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gingertintedglasses/pseuds/gingertintedglasses
Summary: Prompt: In the war vet Steve and civilian Bucky AU, what sort of injuries did Steve sustain? Neither of the fills so far have specified that, beyond that it's apparently serious enough that 100% recovery doesn't seem to be possible.





	Ten Storey Love Song (I Built This Thing For You)

It’d be a year in one more week. Since Steve woke up; not since the Incident. (Bucky couldn’t bring himself to call it anything else (still) and if Steve didn’t remember the op, his CO wasn’t about to detail it.) It’d been a year and Bucky wasn’t sure how to celebrate. Because it deserved celebration. Steve had made incredible progress even if he didn’t always see it. 

The doctors hadn’t been sure if he’d walk again unassisted and, in typical Steve fashion, he walked himself downstairs to make Bucky breakfast on his birthday six months after he’d left the hospital. He stubborned his way through all of his physical therapy (and his team of physicians and therapists were amazing. Bucky had perfected his peanut butter blossoms and ginger molasses cookies. He knew it was their job to help Steve improve as best he could. But they were helping Steve and Bucky didn’t know what he’d do without Steve and so he baked for Steve’s team because he didn’t know how to articulate his gratitude).

So. Bucky felt like all of Steve’s progress deserved a celebration. Sometimes Steve missed a step or had to take a break when he wouldn’t have Before. Sometimes he couldn’t get the cap off a bottle of soda or jam like he used to, his grip not as tight or as sure as it was Before. Sometimes he had a panic attack and had to sit with his back to the nearest solid thing, holding Bucky’s hand and breathing. None of the time did he remember those missing months.

Sometimes, Steve persevered despite all of that. Sometimes, he stayed in bed. All of the time, Bucky loved him and was fiercely proud of him. 

***

Steve’s day started with gentle stretching while he laid in bed. Carefully testing and waking muscles and joints and then running through his steps in his head to help himself out of bed. It was a four or five step process, getting out of bed. It used to be one smooth move, but now it was broken down into smaller steps. Some of them were slowly starting to blend together, but he wasn’t sure it’d ever be one smooth motion again. He was more okay with that than he used to be, Steve found. 

He used his cane, the first few hours of the day (and if he was honest, the last few, too). And he made his way slowly (and less self-consciously and deprecatingly) to the bathroom and then downstairs. He remembered comparing it to slogging through waist-high water, at first. It was still slow going, but it felt like the water had receded, had left him with more than he’d thought it would. 

He still had Bucky, who had been there every step (and misstep) of the way. Who was standing in front of their spare bedroom (the door to which was not only closed, but had a bow on it).

“Buck?”

“I’ve been wanting to do this since Before. And I never got to it and I just – as soon as I thought of it I couldn’t think of a reason why I hadn’t already done it. So. This is for you.”

He opened the door and let Steve step in. It was. It was freshly painted and had a cozy-looking arm chair. It had a standing desk and paper and (expensive) pens and pencils and paints and brushes. It had an easel and some blank canvases stacked off to one side. It had some weights and resistance bands and a treadmill.

“-Bucky. You-“

“A year ago I’d just gotten you back and I was so glad to have you at all. I knew it was going to be a long road and I knew you’d fight every step of the way but I just. You have to know, if somehow you don’t, how far you’ve come and how much you’ve overcome and how much I love you and how proud I am of you. I thought you might like this. I thought – I thought you deserved this.” 

Steve wasn’t always able to pick up his feet like he used to when he walked. He didn’t always have the strength to open or close certain things. He was able to take the two steps needed to close the distance between them and pull Bucky into a tight, enveloping hug.


End file.
